US Patent Application 2008/0095325 (Chilton et al, hereinafter “Chilton”) describes remote reception of CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) information from a CPE. Network status information is received from a communications network indicative of a current operational status for the network. Then, a recommended customer service center is selected from a plurality of customer service centers based upon at least one of the CPE information and the network status information.
US Patent Application 2005/0220033 (DelRegno et al., hereinafter <<DelRegno>>) describes an apparatus and method for performing automated testing and trouble isolation of a communication link in an access network. According to DelRegno, a control system in the network determines a need for a loopback test, and instructions are transmitted from the control system to a test frame originator. The test frame originator creates a test pattern flow and injects the test pattern in the communication link and prepares to receive looped-back test pattern and analyses the results. If errors are detected, the results are transmitted to the control system. The loopback is established by a device that is closely connected to the device for which the communication link is to be tested, and the test frame originator is located somewhere in the communication link to be tested. According to DelRegno, in order to allow concurrent testing of the communication link and the communication link continuing to carry customer traffic during the test, the tests are made on the OSI (Open Systems Interconnect) layer 2 (data link layer), making it possible to use only a portion of the link bandwidth for the testing.
The prior art solutions for performing testing and trouble isolation of a communication link are not optimized. Chilton for example, receives network status information is received from a communications network indicative of a current operational status for the network, not from the real status of the whole communication link that leads from the transmitter to the receiver. DelRegno only tests part of a communications link that is used for transmission of data to the device to test, i.e. the part of the link that is common with the part of the link that connects the frame originator to the device to test. In addition, DelRegno only tests with a test pattern, which does not correspond to real-life data; it is well known for the skilled in the art that some errors only occur with real-life data. In addition, DelRegno only tests at the data link layer, and errors that only occur at higher layers will thus not be detected. In addition, DelRegno uses for the test frames the communication link that is interconnects the transmitter and the receiver, and the method of DelRegno is thus potentially intrusive.
The current prior art solutions of determination of a quality of a communication link are thus not optimized.